


The Thing

by melagan



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Humor, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 06:14:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6144181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melagan/pseuds/melagan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rodney's plans to propose to John don't go as smoothly as he'd hoped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the February SGA challenge - Proposal : A Leap year mini-fest.

Things were shaping up. Rodney flicked the lighter on and off. Working. Check. Maybe he should light the candles ahead of time? For the ambience of the thing. John did like candles, at least he seemed to. What if he didn't? Worried, Rodney paced within the small area of his room, stopping only when he hit his shin on the bed frame. Ow. 

Finding the right music was something else he'd struggled with. Surely soft music would be appropriate. John liked Johnny Cash, Rodney was certain of it, but _Solitary Man_ and _A Boy Named Sue_ were hardly going to help set the mood. 

Oh god. He had a mood. Rodney wiped his hand across his brow. What if it was all wrong? He couldn't do this. He'd radio John and cancel, then he'd take a hot shower and wash off the nervous sweat before he had to change another shirt. His fingers fumbled with the earpiece trying to put it in. More proof he wasn't ready for this.

"Sheppard?" Oh god, when had his voice started sounding so squeaky?

"McKay? What's up?"

It wasn't fair that John Sheppard's voice sounded just as sexy over the radio as it did in person. Just listening to the man's easy drawl almost made Rodney change his mind. He took a deep breath. "That thing. It's cancelled."

"Tonight's thing?"

"Yes yes, our thing we were doing tonight. I'm…." Rodney cussed under his breath. Why couldn't he think of a good lie when he needed one?

"No. It's not."

"What?! You can't un-cancel! It's not your thing, well it is your thing but I'm the thing cancel-er person." Rodney rested his forehead on his palms, ready to weep with frustration.

"Yeah. Well you've cancelled the Thing, and then decided it was on again four times so far today. I'm revoking your cancelling privileges." 

John must have been waiting for him to say something because there was a long pause. "Are you still there, McKay?"

"Yes." Fuck fuck fuck. Rodney looked at his watch. If he couldn't cancel, that meant John would be here soon. "I'm going to have to change my shirt." Oh, hell, he didn’t mean to say that out loud.

"Sure, you do that." 

He sounded amused and Rodney had zero defenses against a gently humored John Sheppard. Even without seeing him, he knew exactly how John looked right now. John's eyes would be crinkled at the corners, his hazel eyes would be sparkling, and if the smile reached his mouth, the sensual curve of his bottom lip would come into play. 

"See you in an hour, Rodney. Sheppard, out."

Rodney sighed. It looked like he wasn't getting out of this. Maybe more candles would help? He pulled the ring box out of his pants pocket, turning it over and over in his hands. He didn't need to open it. He knew exactly what the ring looked like. He should, he'd spent long enough agonizing over finding the right one. 

This was a simple band without a traditional stone but he'd known this was the one the moment he'd seen it. An embedded a strip of narrow, curved, blue marble encircled the black metal. Not a quite Mobius strip, and not a sea wave but a person could see both patterns in it if they wanted to. 

Working with the assumption that John would say yes, Rodney had gone with a matching set. Only – finding the words to actually ask John to marry him was proving more difficult than he'd expected. 

Indecision warred with panic. He couldn't just sit here, John would be along in no time and full of questions about why Rodney wanted this after-hours meeting with him. Yelling back – To propose to you, you idiot! – probably wasn't the best way to go. 

Shirt soaked with nervous sweat, he decided to take a shower. At least he could go to his impending humiliation smelling like Athosian vaniln flowers. Oh yay.

~*~

He stepped out of the shower with one towel around his waist and rubbing a second towel over his scalp. He felt much better and muttered away to himself, "McKay, you sexy devil, say what you will about the smell, but the Athosians know how to make a soap that gives your hair great volume." Now, if only the mirror wasn't so steamy that he couldn't see to appreciate it.

"A-hem."

Rodney whirled on one heel, barely keeping a grip on the towel at his waist. "You! What are you doing here?"

"You invited me, remember?" John sat on Rodney's bed. Sprawled really, propped up by his elbows, he'd certainly made himself comfortable. He was turning something over in is hand, keeping Rodney from getting a good look at it.

"Something you want to tell me, McKay?"

"What? No."

In one long, smooth move, John stood. There was nothing relaxed looking about him now. "You yelled my name while you were in the shower. Why would that be, I wonder?" 

"I did?" Rodney squinched his eyes shut. Of course he did. He'd been jerking off while imagining John naked, per usual. "I didn't know I was that loud."

When he opened his eyes, John was standing directly in front of him. "Oh, I think there's something you want to say, all right. Or maybe," John held up the ring box, "there's something you want to ask?"

"Is it hot in here? I think it's hot in here." All of Rodney's skin prickled with heat, only he knew it had nothing to do with the shower. 

"Yeah. It's pretty damn…." John slid two fingers between Rodney's skin and the towel at his waist. "Hot."

"I can't ask you when I'm practically naked!" 

"Would it help if you were all the way naked?" John gave the towel a gentle tug.

Rodney put his hand over John's. "There are so many ways I could answer that."

John raised his eyebrows in question.

"Believe me if you keep doing that, I'll be reduced to begging you fuck me in every way you can imagine. But I have a different question to ask first." 

He had no idea where this new courage came from; maybe from the look of warmth in John's eyes, or in the heat from his hand where they touched. Or maybe because John had found the ring, knew Rodney's intentions, and had stayed. 

"Give me the ring box."

"You're pushy, for a man in nothing but a towel." John set the box in Rodney's open palm. "Make it good. I've never been proposed to before." He held up his hands. "Fine, I've never been proposed to for _marriage_ before.

"I've been practicing. This will be the best proposal in the history of, crap, I need pants on if I'm going to get down on one knee. Where the hell are my pants?"

"Rodney. Just ask," John said, softly.

All of his carefully planned words left him leaving Rodney with nothing but the desire to have John Sheppard at his side for the rest of his life. With steady fingers, he pulled the ring from its box and with a deep breath, slid the ring onto John's finger. "Will you?"

"Yes." John stared down at the ring on his finger for long moments before looking back up at Rodney and grinning.

"Yes? It's that simple?" 

"Have we ever needed complicated?" John asked.

He had a point. With other people, everything seemed complicated but it had always been easy with John. He leaned forward, lips meeting John's in a kiss. The combination of heat and softness almost did him in and he moaned, hands grasping at John's hips, trying to drag him even closer.

"Rodney," John husked, tugging at the towel and tossing it aside. "It's time to ask me for that other thing you mentioned. And, just in case you wondered, the man you're about to marry has an excellent imagination."

~*~


End file.
